Recent advances in computing devices have allowed for visually stunning graphics on many light, and often portable, computing devices. The graphics can be provided through a variety of systems that incorporate a graphics processor and a display monitor. Many graphics processors can interact with a display monitor to provide images and video that can update or refresh without any interruption being perceived by the user of the display monitor. However, both the transmission of data and the emissions of light from the display monitor for prolonged periods necessitate quantities of energy typically not available when implemented in portable computing devices. Often times this energy is devoted to transitions between colors and brightness levels of the display, and therefore designing a display that does not provide as optimal of transitions can degrade the user experience with the computing device. As a result, manufacturers must often make a choice between providing a more impressive visual display or conserving energy in order to provide a longer battery life for the computing device.
Many computing devices are primarily used for internet browsing, which can often require a variety of graphics to be displayed. For instance, some web pages are devoted to streaming videos and therefore can demand a lot of effort from the graphics processor of a computing device. In order to provide smooth streams of videos, the display monitor should be refreshed at a rate that allows for the video to be smoothly presented on the display monitor. However, maintaining a high refresh rate can be inefficient with respect to energy consumption because often times the entire area of the display monitor is refreshed without regards to the size of the video being displayed. Therefore, even if the user of the computing device is streaming a small video on a large display monitor, the refresh rate will be dynamic with respect to the dimensions of the video. Because the hardware of many computing devices is not designed to adjust refresh rates according to the application being executed, the user is often left with a device that cannot maintain charge during periods of frequent media playback. The user is therefore often discouraged from displaying media streams until the user can plug their computing device into a charging port, or until the user knows that they will not need the battery life for other applications at certain points in the day. Additionally, idle screens displaying animations for various applications can also consume energy in a wasteful manner despite many processes of the application occurring on a cloud server rather than the computing device. In this way, an application can in some cases consume more energy merely for aesthetics rather than the primary purpose of the application.